The Arch Stanton Trio @ Gaslight

The Arch Stanton Trio

The Arch Stanton Trio is a guitar-led version of the band’s acclaimed quartet. Based in upstate New York, the band performs original jazz that is experimental, yet rooted in bop and post-bop traditions.

Their debut album of original compositions, Along For The Ride, was released in November 2012 on WEPA Records. “With one foot in the timeless traditions of bop, and the other about to set down on something new,” the group “is as mysterious as its name, with killer players that aren’t afraid to go out on a limb, right to the very end,” wrote Dave Malachowski in his review for The Daily Freeman.

In March 2013 the band embarked on a tour of Egypt, performing at the Cairo Jazz Festival and other gigs. The trip was sponsored by the educational organization AMIDEAST, the U.S. Embassy Cairo, and the Center for American Studies at the American University in Cairo. That same year, the band opened for Charlie Hunter and Oleta Adams at the Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival.

Drawing from their experiences in Egypt, the group, in October 2014, released a nine-song sophomore album, Blues For Soli (also on WEPA Records), which includes a suite of music directly influenced by their Egypt tour. In a review of the album for Metroland, Jeff Nania writes: “This record serves to showcase the evolution of a local group’s compositional style as they continue to go beyond bop and incorporate further cultural influences into their sound.”

In 2016, the band performed at the Bridge Jazz Festival at the Massry Center in Albany, opening for Ellis and Delfeayo Marsalis of the famed Marsalis family, the “first family” of New Orleans Jazz.

The band has been a regular fixture of the Capital Region jazz club scene. It is currently planning material for its third album, which will include a suite of compositions inspired by Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man and other original pieces.